dramatispersonae | ♫ ruby ♫

♫ ruby ♫

You're in a sumptuous room, with rich brocade in your team colors and fine appointments in copper and marble that should look bright and beautiful -- but everything is dusty and grey, with a furtive, abandoned air. This is a place that's been locked away for a long time. It feels as if it would be sad to linger here for long.

Fortunately (perhaps), after one good look at the room, you catch a brief, pained snatch of melody. Your vision goes dark, and you immediately find your mind somewhere else-- ♫

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

For the first round, your character will be locked into a vivid waking nightmare (with which they can hopefully identify) for three comments! Your character will know to some extent that it's a dream, as one does sometimes in lucid dreams -- however, this shouldn't prevent the character from being affected by and reacting to the scenario. Our goal is a deeply unpleasant experience rather than outright trauma, so please use your judgment on how much immersion versus a sense of unreality from being in a dream you need to play with to get that outcome!

You can play with characters reacting to the scenario any way you want - have them interact with each other as if they're all going through what's being described together as a group, or have each person interact with it separately, or whatever - as you and your team prefer. (If you’re coming in late, you can just react individually to the scenario comments and then jump in wherever your team is playing! The rest of the game won’t make much sense otherwise.) After your team has finished reacting to each comment, let your gamerunner know that you're done so the next one (and then the next round, when the dream is over) can be unscreened.

Once the nightmare is over, teams will be free to discuss and answer a series of questions.

Teams will be running at their own pace without inter-team interactions, so please pace yourselves accordingly as a group to make sure you don’t run overtime! We’ll be cutting off all teams at the 5-hour mark (9:30 PM PST/12:30 AM EST).

You wake up sitting securely in one of the luxurious abandoned chairs. You're feeling sore and ill, pained from the affereffects of whatever happened -- but it's all the ghost of a reaction, fading slowly.

Firebird's voice floats through the air on another brief melody. She sounds exhausted, as tired and sick as you are.

"So what would you do, if such a thing came to pass? After all of your fears came true?"

Firebird's voice filters to your ears again.

"I thank you for your thought on this matter so far... what do you think bravery is? How is it different from foolhardiness? When is it the right decision to be brave?"

Firebird sighs. Her voice is almost inaudible this time.

"And how do you face your fears while they are happening? If you could... how would you change the dream of fear so that a different future came true?"

You’re standing by a golden cage with an open door, set into one cup of a pair of huge scales. On the other cup of the scale is a disquieting coil of Darkness, squirming and writhing. You’re speaking to one of your teammates (is it Tavros? Perhaps Damian? Either way, the rest of the team has already fallen, and you’re the only ones left who can do this.) You’re trying to persuade them to enter the cage, to set the balance right and weigh the scale in your team’s favor. You can't set foot in a cage, but they can! And there’s no other way right now! Why are they arguing? Why can’t they see that!? Frustration and anxiety dry your mouth and make you swallow to keep bile down.

There’s no time left, and you’re the only one who can set this right. The peaking of your frustration hurts, sharply -- why the hell won’t they trust you anyway, when you've told them this is for the best? Voices and fists are raised, and the pain of their mistrust is like a nagging wound -- you'll show them. there's no more time. You can feel the startled oof of their breath thudding out of them as you shove them in, and a sense of weird triumph. You'll show them who can make everything right, won't you? The scale tips, and you hear their scream.

You made a mistake - everything's wrong. But how could it be, when it was so right a second ago? You reach for the bars, knowing that their sharp gold metal will cut your fingers, and watch as the blood flowers across your teammate’s hands instead. You watch as your teammate is carved into bloody ribbons because of your mistake; the last coherent thing they say is how could you?

How could you have thought you were doing the right thing? How could you ever, ever have thought you were right about anything? You look back down at your hands, feeling a kind of numb, faraway horror as they begin to twist and morph into dark claws. The Darkness was in you all along, after all: you let it in.

[there's a glance behind him and a glance at the Darkness.]

As difficult as it may seem, I'm not lying. I would step in if it were an option.

What, and you think I am? It should be you. You're heavier than me, you have a better chance of making it balance.

Fuck it, would you all listen to me?

I am listening.

I wouldn't ask you of all people to do this if I had the choice.

[flinches, but:]

Well, I can't, and do you really think that I would be asking you, if I had the choice?

It's not that simple, Tavros.

Why is it not that simple? One of you has to get in the cage. It doesn't have to be hard.

No, and you're not listening to me.

I can't do it, at all, no matter how much I may want to.

Because I can't!

[frustrated, clearly]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 8

♫ ruby ♫

♪ instructions ♪

round 1 ♩

round 2 ♩

round 3 ♩

round 4 ♩

result ♮

discussion

decision

discussion

decision

discussion

decision

first

second

third

Re: first

Re: first

Re: first

Re: first

Re: first

Re: first

Re: first

Re: first

Re: first

Re: first